"Opinicus" > wrote in message
...
> On Fri, 27 Jun 2014 17:05:00 -0400, Ed Pawlowski > wrote:
>
>>In a recent thread about driving, I was adamant that there was little
>>reason to have to learn stick shift to get your license. I guess I was
>>wrong and this proves it.
>
>>http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/teen...k-shift/ngQd7/
> I learned on a stick and never did get used to automatics. In fact my
> inability to drive one got me out of a lot of bothersome "duty
> details" when I worked for a US contractor in Saudi Arabia. Our
> department had a company car (a huge US-made behemoth) that we grunts
> were constantly being required to drive in order to fetch or deliver
> someone or something somewhere. On one occasion the lot fell to me. A
> slab of marble had to be taken somewhere to be cut to size. I pointed
> out that I'd never driven an automatic and didn't think I ought to.
> "It's easy" they said and gave me a few pointers: push this, move
> that, etc. I sat in the driver's seat. My Saudi counterpart, assigned
> to ride shotgun, sat in the passenger seat anxiously clutching the
> marble slab. I started the ignition, did what they told me to do, and
> took off. I barely got a few meters before "muscle memory" took over:
> I stepped on what I *thought* was the clutch and shifted what I
> *thought* was the gear shift. That ended my first and only automatic
> driving experience. My Saudi counter part was installed in the
> driver's seat (even though that was against company policy) and I took
> over as shotgun, happily clutching the marble for the rest of the day.

LOL I know what you mean about using a clutch that isn't there)) I get a
bit of that when I move from my stick shift to my auto, but I've been
driving auto for so many years I soon fall in to it


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